Alone: Didyme's Story
by Charlotte -LOVE
Summary: Oneshot about Aro leaving and then coming back. It was written for a competition, so it is quite short. Please review - I greatly appreciate it.


**All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.  
Just a quick oneshot about Didyme turning into a vampire. Written for a competition, and for fun. This one (unlike Valentine's Day) will stay as a oneshot. I don't have the energy to turn it in a story.  
~Charlotte-LOVE-**

* * *

**Didyme's Story: Alone  
**

My legs swung too and fro as I waited for Mamma to come and tuck me in and read me a bedtime fairytale. I sighed and beat a repetitive rhythm onto the wooden slats on the side of my bed, Mamma was rarely late as she believed it was a sin to keep anyone waiting. I watched my bedroom door open a crack, and I waited as I could patiently for the smiling face of Mamma appear in the door and apologise for being late. But that didn't come.

I lost my good girl attitude and ran towards the door, jolting it open more. I expected my Mamma to scold me for this, but instead she looked down at me with tears streaking her wrinkled skin.

"Mamma?" I whispered, not sure what to make of this spectacle. Mamma, who rarely showed any other emotion apart from happiness, was _crying_? "Mamma, what has happened?"

She shook her head and blinked quickly, to try and rid herself of the tears – and then she gathered me up in her arms and placed me on my bed, tucking the covers up to my neck. I freed a hand to wipe away the tears she missed and smiled at her, trying to cheer her up. She managed a watery one back at me, but then she burst into heart wrenching sobs. I sat up, letting the covers bundle around my tummy and stretched to hug her tightly.

"Mamma!" I cried, "Mamma, please, what's wrong? What have I done?"

She sniffed and pulled me closer to her. "Nothing, Didyme, you haven't done anything. I need to tell you something. Aro… Aro has…"

"Aro has what?" My brother and parents never got on, and I was used to them fighting constantly – but he had _never_ made Mamma cry. "Mamma _please_ stop crying, you're making me upset."

"Aro's gone Didyme. You're father's been searching _everywhere_, so have the police But we can't find him, and I don't know if he's coming back…" Her voice trailed off as the weight of her words descended on her and on me. "I don't know if he's coming back."

"Aro?" My eyes watered and my voice trembled, Aro couldn't be gone. Aro had been with me since I was born, he was my brother. He had to be here, at home, with me. I loved him. I wanted a family. I needed _my_ family. He couldn't be gone.

* * *

When I was seven, my elder brother disappeared.

When I was nine, my drunk Papa decided to go and look for him. He did not come back that night.

When I was twelve, I decided that Papa was never going to come back to us.

When I was fifteen, my Mamma died of an illness that was sweeping the land.

* * *

I was crying as I put flowers on Mamma's grave. Her coffin rested in between my brother's and father's empty ones. The tears that stained my face regularly now, refused to stop. I shook my head and blinked rapidly, a technique my Mamma taught me when she walked in on me crying one afternoon. But no techniques were going to numb the pain of losing everyone.

Four years. Four years of being alone. You would assume that I would be used to it. _I_ expected that I would be fine after that long.

But no. Every morning I wake up and realise that there is no one else asleep in my house. I realise that I'm going to have to make myself some breakfast, because Mamma isn't doing it. I realise that Papa won't be able to tell me the morning news as he reads it – that I'll have to find out from someone else. Each morning I realise that I'm alone.

"Are you alright?" A smooth, attractive voice spoke from behind me. A hand pressed lightly onto my shoulder, cold fingers brushing against the exposed parts of my neck. The voice sighed in recognition, as if this little contact could give him knowledge. "Didyme."

I spun, my throat catching in panic. I was in graveyard, _nobody_ talked to you in a graveyard, they certainly didn't touch you and then say your name. My panic morphed into shock as I stared at the person in front of me.

He was beautiful. The palest skin I had ever seen – too pale for the warm sun in Italy, even though the sun was hiding its face behind clouds today – and shining ruby-red eyes. His black hair gleamed in the little light and fell in waves as he titled his head. The black cloak that he wore was obviously extremely expensive.

But despite the differences, there were certain things that seemed familiar. Despite the beauty, he looked to be in his late twenties. His hair was cut in a straight line at his shoulders, and he spoke with a slight regional accent that I could place within a heartbeat.

However there were the impossibilities. Like the fact that my brother had disappeared a decade ago – and the man in front of me didn't look a day older. And the unnatural red glow of his eyes warned me to run and sent a wave of fear through my body.

"Do you remember me?"

It was the way he spoke that broke my terror. The perfect pronunciation, with only a hint of his home town.

"Aro?"

A relieved smile broke across his face as I remembered, and he nodded. "Little sister," he crooned, "I've come to take you with me."

"What? Wait. Y-you… Where've you _been_? It's been _twelve_ _years_! Papa is dead because of you! I've been alone because you left!"

He cupped my face in his freezing hand and pressed a thumb against my lips. "Didyme, I know. And I'm so sorry for all the pain I've caused you. I've come to make sure that you're not alone – to make sure that you're never alone again."

The words pulled me in like magic. The only thing I wanted was not to be alone – I was tired of it. And despite my brother's alien appearance, he was here and he was going to protect me. I threw my arms around his granite-like shoulders and smiled into his cloak.

"I missed you so much, Aro."

He stroked my hair in brisk, soothing motions. "I know, little one, I know. And I promise not to leave you again." He pushed me away gently, keeping his grip on my shoulders. "And, I'm sorry, little one, but I will have to leave you unless I do this."

The prospect of him leaving cut through me like a knife and I shook my head. "Aro, please! Anything. I'll do anything."

Nodding, he kissed my throat gently. "This will hurt, I'm afraid, little one," he said as he leaned in to kiss my throat

The 'kiss', however, was not a kiss; it was a bite. I gasped as the unfeasibly sharp teeth dug into the soft skin of my neck. There was a strange sensation as my blood seemed to cool, and then it started to heat slightly. I grimaced – I love the warm weather in Italy but this was hotter than I preferred.

The heat intensified, so much so that I barely noticed as Aro picked me up and slung me over his back as if I weighed nothing. And then a wave of fire engulfed me and I stopped caring about everything and anything.

When my screams finally subsided and I could move without excruciating pain in every cell of body, I realised how different I felt. For a start, the boiling Italian summer wasn't making me sweat the way it usually did. And everything seemed slightly louder than usual, as if I was lying on a crowded market street instead of in a private bedroom that had been sealed off to everyone else. When I opened my eyes, I realised something else. I could _see_.

I realised how blind I had been my whole life as I looked around the opulent bedroom. I examined a millimetre crack in a wall six metres away, I could see all the little dust motes dancing in the sunlight. In the sun, I saw not just yellow – I saw reds and oranges, tinged with violets and greens before tapering into transparency.

The door opened, and my brother walked in with a man behind his shoulder. He smiled and me and brushed my face softly, as if ascertaining that I was alright.

"You see?" he said when I didn't speak. "This way, you will never be alone again. Welcome to my world, Didyme."

I smiled at him, and the room around me seemed to glow with an aura of happiness that radiated from every surface. The men in front of my seemed unable to help smiling back.


End file.
